Okay, so, it’s proven exceedingly difficult to find time to chronicle my time in New York, but I’ll finish eventually. Let’s see, where did I leave off? Oh right, so after my first few day…

So, right before I started work, I got together with the two other Ogilvy interns from my school, Jeff and Vanessa, as well as some other random people. That was a blast, we spent most the night at Off the Wagon over by Washington Park. I made the decision to wear heels, which showcases my lack of good judgment – so I ended up asking to sit down at a table with some random people because everywhere else was full. They ended up being, like, the nicest couple ever – they were out celebrating her brother’s birthday – and we chatted for a while, and they bought me a gin and tonic. Later, back with my group, we ended the night by going to a Papaya Dog and heading home. Yay for delicious hot dogs.

I gotta say, I was pretty freaked out about starting work. I guess I figure you only have one chance to do a post-junior-year internship which is “the big one” so you better make it the best thing ever. Additionally, I knew I’d decided on this internship pretty early (probably about 2 years earlier than necessary), so maybe I’d limited my options by having my mind set on working here. Maybe.

I left super early and ended up reading at the nearby Starbucks for almost an hour before going into the lobby. I waited along with the rest of the earlybirds for an additional half-hour at least while being asked to move repeatedly (apparently we were in the way no matter what). There was a lot of small talk. A lot.

By the end of the first day, I still felt somewhat unsure. We were supposed to have gone to lunch with our supervisors but mine was out. Instead, I sat an read a competitive analysis during my lunch hour. The other interns seemed okay, but I accidentally asked the same guy what school he went to — three times. We also did a city-wide scavenger hunt, which turned out to be a lot more competitive than I thought it would be. Odd.

The rest of the week plodded along as I got to know the team I was working with. I started to feel better as I saw how friendly and helpful they were, but I wasn’t sure about what I’d really be doing around here. I spent a lot of time worry about what clothes I’d wear instead. Hmm. I remember sitting around in Starbucks, sometimes with the other Emory people, for long streches of time after work that week. To be honest, things looked a little grey. I was having fun and learning some, but essentially it looked like it would be a pretty long summer.

So, on all those advice sites for college students, there’s a few pieces of advice that tend to be pretty standard. Among them, a) handwritten notes are best in order to get through the corporate clutter and b) you have to take the initiative in internships if you want to get anything out of it.

Fine. So, after getting the okay from my supervisor, I started to offer out my services to other people on the team. Having read heard the benefits of a handwritten note being extolled repeatedly, I scribbled a message offering to provide any sort of assistance and left it on someone’s desk. Later that day, the lady gave me the option of helping her out, but only if I didn’t mind staying a little later for a couple days. I obviously wasn’t going to turn the offer down, and – to steal a line from Kurt Vonnegut – so it goes. To be continued.